


Warm Meals And Cold Nights

by Dikhotomia



Series: Edeleth Week 2k19 [1]
Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: ALL THE FLUFF, Camping, Cooking, Edeleth Week, Edelgard and Byleth are helplessly in love, F/F, Not quite a snow day, fluff lots of fluff, more fluff then i'm used to writing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-30
Updated: 2019-09-30
Packaged: 2020-11-07 22:20:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20824733
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dikhotomia/pseuds/Dikhotomia
Summary: "It's gotten colder, Byleth thinks as she warms her hands over the pot of stew merrily simmering away, bending down a moment after to adjust the logs on the fire. The ground had frozen the night before, frost clinging stubbornly to the tents and plant life."OrByleth enjoys a semi-peaceful day at camp.





	Warm Meals And Cold Nights

**Author's Note:**

> Here I am dropping my first contribution to Edeleth week. I am deep in FE and Edeleth hell and have been for a month now so I am excited to add to the fandom. I sorta combined two prompts here, mainly vegetables with a hint of snow day...without the actual snow day.
> 
> Unbeta'd so all mistakes are mine.

_It's gotten colder_, Byleth thinks as she warms her hands over the pot of stew merrily simmering away, bending down a moment after to adjust the logs on the fire. The ground had frozen the night before, frost clinging stubbornly to the tents and plant-life.

"It will snow soon," Edelgard had said that morning, standing at the opening of the tent and staring out into the frosted camp, heavy furs coiled around her shoulders. "I had hoped to leave before that, but it seems fate was not on our side." She had dressed and left soon after with a lingering kiss and a promise to return in the evening. It gave Byleth time to carry out her own plans, bringing Petra and a few others out on a hunt to fell the deer that now had become the stew she tended to.

She checked it again, stirring it idly and considering going to the makeshift market to get some vegetables to add to it when a tiny voice pulls her from her thoughts. Her eyes lift to catch a familiar flash of crimson among the lively hustle and bustle of their camp, soldiers and civilians alike enjoying the last few days before snowfall drives them all back to the towns and cities to hole up for the coming winter. 

Edelgard emerges from them with a few children at her heels, running around her feet and hiding in the heavy fur cloak she wears. She speaks, lifting the cloak and exposing the child hiding there with a smirk and a twitch of her chin. The children erupt into fits of giggling and run forward, waving to Byleth where she stands. 

"We brought back some vegetables!" The child that reaches her first says, a grin on his face and Byleth smiles as the rest of the children gather around, her attention lifting as Edelgard joins them. 

"Petra found me as I was leaving the meeting," she says by way of answer to Byleth's silent question, setting the small basket of assorted vegetables down on the makeshift counter. "She mentioned that you were making stew, so I decided I would bring back some vegetables from the camp market," she adds, potato in hand. "The children joined me as I was looking."

Byleth hums, regarding the basket and the children in kind. "Thank you for helping her," she says, bending down a little and looking at each of them. "Now, how about you do me a favor?" She's met with a chorus of nods and curious glances. "Can you rinse those off for me so we can add them to the stew?" 

"Sure!" One says, the basket and children both disappearing in short order. 

"It's good you came back when you did," Byleth murmurs as Edelgard moves closer to the low fire. "I was thinking about asking a soldier to watch the stew while I went to get some vegetables myself." She was sure she could have found where Ashe or Mercedes had set themselves up and asked for their help as well, but it didn't matter now.

"I was fortunate to get out early," Edelgard replies, leaning slightly against her side. "The meetings went much smoother than I anticipated, and we've been invited to stay in a nearby city for the winter if we so wish." She looks almost content, attention set on the camp around them and the ebb and flow of people around them. "We may have to take them up on their offer," she adds after a moment, looking up to the stretch of gray sky above them. It had changed little from the morning, the chill air holding the threat of the snow Edelgard believed coming.

"We're far enough north it will probably be best," Byleth says, stirring the stew again. "Even if we march out tomorrow we won't reach Garreg Mach before the worst of the cold sets in."

"East it is," Edelgard affirms with a sigh, crossing her arms. "There is still much to be done here, so It's not as if we'll be losing time doing nothing."

"You could use a break, you know," Byleth comments, reaching out and curling her hand around the back of the other's neck. "You've been running yourself ragged for months now."

Edelgard laughs, leaning back into the touch. "Tell that to Hubert."

Byleth resists the urge to roll her eyes and wonders just how much more Hubert and Edelgard both will find to fill their plates with. "What will you do when you run out of things to do, I wonder."

"Why, Professor," Edelgard drawls, head bumping against her shoulder. "Laze around and gorge myself on sweets."

"That sounds like a plan," she agrees, laughter in her words that's contagious enough they both fall to it, huddling closer to one another as they do.

The children rejoin them in a fit of nonsensical chatter and giggling, slipping between where they stand beside one another and tug and cloaks until the space around the stew becomes a flurry of activity. Edelgard chops the vegetables with skilled knife work, children exchanging taking the scraps or adding the fresh cuts to the stew while Byleth stirs. It's easy to settle into the domesticity of it, despite where they were and what they were doing.

"So is it true?" One of their helpers ask, wrapped up in the long trail of Edelgard's cloak, "Are you and the Professor gonna get married?" Byleth coughs to hide her laughter and the baffled look that crosses Edelgard's face, pressing her lips in a vain attempt to stave off the smile while the Emperor searches for an answer.

"Well, where did you hear that?" She asks instead, reaching down to place a hand on the child's head. Byleth knows it's knowledge only among their closest friends and the ring she had given Edelgard hangs around the Emperor's neck out of fear of losing it. Silently, she admits to her own curiosity.

"Dorothea told us!" 

_That,_ Byleth thinks, laughing at the exasperation that crosses Edelgard's face,_ is not at all a surprise._

"Of course she did," Edelgard mutters, ruffling hair and sighing. "Yes," she caves a second later, looking up to meet Byleth's eyes. "We are."

"Will we be invited?"

"Why wouldn't you be?" Byleth asks, leaving the children to contemplate an answer they never quite come to before giving in with a collective cheer. "Now run along," she says, shooing them with her free hand. "We'll call you when the stew is done."

They fall into silence once the children leave, distantly hearing their shrieks of joy and laughter as they chase each other through the camp. Her attention flicks from tending the stew to where Edelgard now sits wrapped up in her cloak, staring into the fire.

An hour passes before the stew finishes in it's entirety and Byleth attracts a much bigger crowd, hungry soldiers and civilians bringing their own contributions and helping out to make sure everyone gets fed.

"Here," Byleth says after the crowd had dispersed a little, thinning back out around the various fires. Edelgard looks up at the bowl Byleth holds out to her and takes it with a smile, curling her hands around it's base to lower it to her lap. "I have some bread here too," she adds, sitting beside her on the log. "Fresh baked today."

"Thank you," she replies before digging in, both of them falling back into that now familiar but still comfortable silence as they eat.

Byleth could get used to this, to the quiet, to the lack of fighting and chaos and constant worry of attack.

She likes it like this.

\------

It begins to snow as they're cleaning up, mostly frozen ground kicked over dying campfires as they retreat to their tents and rebuild them there, hunkering down and hoping that it gets no worse than a flurry. 

After all, no one wants to march through knee deep snow, even if it wasn't a long distance

**Author's Note:**

> catch me on [Tumblr](http://dikhotomia.tumblr.com/) and or [Twitter!](https://twitter.com/modulatechaos)


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